professional articles posted in 3 1
Please read the article submission and view the video posted by student presenter Katie Harris and after posting, respond to at least two other students.
Foster Care until 21
My research topic is Foster care until 21 and I have found two interesting articles that
show the positive outcomes of extending the foster care age from 18 to 21. Also I will showing
some of the statistics I have found throughout these two articles that show the difference between
leaving foster care at age 18 and 21.
The first article I have chosen is called “Foster Care to 21; Doing it Right.†This article
was written by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The topic of the article is the pros for extending
foster care to age 21. Within the article it states that being in foster care longer instead of 18 but
to 21 makes it easier to transition into the next part of life out of foster care. One key point that is
within this article is that homelessness among the 18 year olds who aged out of foster care is
more likely, than if they were to stay within the system until 21. If they have to leave foster care
at 18 by the age of 23-24 they would have had multiple situations of unstable living and
homelessness(Casey, 2011). Another key point within this article is if allowing young people to
remain in care until age 21 doubles the percentage who earn a college degree from 10.2 to
20.4,(dworsky, 2009) thereby increasing their earnings potential (Casey, 2011). Also young
women who leave foster care do to ageing out at the age of 18 have a higher rate of pregnancy,
in comparison to the young women who remain in care experience a 38% reduction in the
incidence of pregnancy before age 20.(Casey, 2011) The larger issue about this article is that it
states that the age raise from 18 to 21 in the foster care system greatly increases the positive
outcomes for those children/young adults. I find the article very informative and well organized.
The second article I found was “Foster care, support programs for young people should
extend until age of 21, Anglicare says.†The author of this article is Hamish Fitzsimmons and the
topic of this article is the reason why foster care should be extended to 21. One of the key points
from this article is that 50% of the 18 year olds who had to leave the foster care system would be
pregnant, in prison, homeless, or unemployed.(Fitzsimmons, 2015) The issue that is addressed is
that if we do not extend the age to 21, there could be unnecessary bad consequences for these
youths. My personal reaction is shocked because it’s incredible how much of a difference it
makes by just adding 3 years and the turn out could be so much better.
In conclusion I think it is a great thing that states are taking into consideration how the
brain develops, and also how better it would be for a age extension within foster care. The
difference between leaving foster care at the age of 21 instead of 18 is such a major difference
and it also helps the child who is in foster care with transitioning and knowing how to maintain a
stable lifestyle.
Resources
Casey Foundation, A. E. (2011, April 19). Foster Care to 21: Doing it Right . Retrieved from
https://www.aecf.org/resources/foster-care-to-21-d…
Fitzsimmons, H. (2015, March 27). Foster care funding should extend until age of 21:
Anglicare. Retrieved from https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-03-27/calls-for-foster-care-
funding-to-extend-to-21-year-olds/6353646
Peters, C.M., Dworsky, A., Courtney, M.E., & Pollack, H. (2009). Extending foster care to age 21: Weighing the costs to government against the benefits to youth.
Chicago, IL: Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago
Professional Article: Foster Care until 21 (Links to an external site.)
Discussion Question:
With all of the things I have said throughout the video how do you guys feel about the extension of foster care. Do you agree that it is a good thing or do you disagree?
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